


First Comes Crime, Then Comes Marriage

by loveyouallwrong (drunktuesdays)



Category: Greek
Genre: F/F, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-11
Updated: 2010-02-11
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunktuesdays/pseuds/loveyouallwrong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katherine needs a new room, and Casey helps her get one, by any means possible.  Beta by Giddygeek and Barnacling, audienced by Stealstheashes <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Comes Crime, Then Comes Marriage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [janet_carter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/janet_carter/gifts).



The thing is the Cartwright children both had a finely tuned sense of right and wrong. Casey liked to think she was less annoying about it than Rusty was, but still, she couldn't deny that it was there.

Right now her whatever, conscience, she guessed, was choosing to flood her subconscious with dreams soaked in guilt. She would be dreaming of being on stage, singing a duet with that Jonas Brother only Ashleigh knew she has a weakness for, and she'd look out and see Katherine in the audience, clutching a clipboard and looking betrayed. Or she'd be running from someone, sometimes a monster, sometimes Lizzie, and she'd turn a corner that revealed Katherine scrubbing puke up while her roommate drooled on the bed.

It was all incredibly annoying, and she got it. She was wrong. She just didn't know how to _fix_ it, and it wasn't like her subconscious was giving her a clue on _that_ or anything. No, it was all Katherine mournfully standing there. Tonight it happened to be a very nice dream about hanging out with LC again, when their waitress holding menus turned out to be Katherine peering over her clipboard.

"That's it," she said out loud, sitting up in bed. A noise came from Ashleigh's bed that sounded like a hippo dying, but she ignored it. It didn't matter what Katherine _said_. She was gonna get her favorite clipboard back. Then maybe Casey would get to sleep through the night, finally.

There was no way she was going back to sleep, however. The clock told her it was almost six, so she swung her legs out of bed, and padded downstairs. The house was silent as she moved through the living room and down the hallway to the kitchen.

She flicked a light on, and screamed, when she saw Rebecca sitting at the island, methodically stirring a cup of tea.

"What the hell are you doing up," Casey said, breathing hard and leaning against the door frame.

Rebecca shrugged. "Bad dream."

"God, me too," Casey said and crossed the kitchen to pour herself a cup, and settled on a stool across from Rebecca, cupping her hands around the steam. "What was yours about?"

"Tandem bikes," Rebecca said cryptically. Casey stared at her disbelievingly, but Rebecca just shrugged. "Don't ask. Are you dreaming about Cappie?"

"What? No, I told you, it wasn't a bad breakup. It was mutual."

"Mmhm." Rebecca said, doubt written on her face. "What did you have a nightmare about then?"

Casey groaned and let her head fall to her arms. "Freaking Katherine. Again."

Rebecca's eyes widened. "The Pan-Hellenic chick? Why?"

"I have an overeager guilt complex," Casey answered, muffled by her folded arms. She suddenly sat up. "Wanna help me dig up her clipboard?"

"Uh," Rebecca said, snickering. "Not really."

"Please, Rebecca," Casey begged. "I'm never going to find the same spot by myself. You don't have class today and you're already awake. Pleeeeeeeease."

In the end, Casey bribed her into it with her hidden cheeserito stash. They stole the shovel from the Lamda Sigs again, and skulked out into the woods.

"Everything looks different in daylight," Rebecca complained. "Do you even know where we're going?"

"No," Casey said, brushing a sweaty piece of hair back. "That's why I brought _you_." She glared at Rebecca's back as they stomped forward.

"Ow," Rebecca said after a couple of minutes. "I definitely remember that thorn bush."

"Wait," Casey said, pointing. "Right there!" She gestured to a lump of dirt that was unmistakably the grave they had dug last month.

"Cheeseritos _and_ your dark chocolate," Rebecca said, brandishing the shovel. Only once Casey had agreed did Rebecca follow her direction and start digging.

After a few big piles of dirt went flying, and Rebecca did a lot of complaining, they heard the sound of the shovel hitting something hard. Casey knelt, and felt with her hand until she touched the edge of the plastic. Using her hands like claws, she unearthed the clipboard and held it over her head in victory.

"Ugh," Rebecca said. "Take the SongFest stuff out at least, will you?"

They reburied the judges' score sheets, and stomped on the pile of dirt this time to make it blend in. "I'm going to go give this to Katherine," Casey said gleefully.

"I'm going to do something less lame," Rebecca said. "Which could be anything else. Anything. In the whole world, anything."

Casey ignored her and headed off towards the direction of Katherine's dorms. She had dirt on her face, pants and under her fingernails, but there was that thrum in her body she got when she knew she was doing the right thing. She had gotten it every time she kissed Cappie, and every time she broke up with him.

"I can't live in there for one more second!" Katherine yelled as Casey bounded the steps to the right floor, and rounded the corner. "Deirdre, I don't think you understand! She has come home puking every day this week!"

"And I don't think _you_ understand," Deirdre, who Casey presumed was the RA yelled back, "that it's the middle of the semester and there is _no where else_ for you to go. No one else has an empty room. I can't help you." She closed the door in Katherine's face.

Katherine made a murderous sound and kicked the wall. She turned to go back to her room when she caught sight of Casey, lurking in the shadows. "What do _you_ want," she said, visibly pulling herself together.

"I," Casey started, and then looked down at the clipboard in her hand. "I found this." She thrust it upwards, and Katherine took it from her, gingerly. She pressed the top of the clip, and it made a low rusty noise, and a clod of dirt fell out.

"Thanks," Katherine said, hysteria bubbling up in her voice. She suddenly sank backwards so that her back was against the wall, and folded down. "Damn it," she said, pressing a fist into her eye. "_Damn_ it."

Casey crouched next to her. "Maybe you can go to Student Services, and plead your case there," she offered, and Katherine shook her head before she even finished.

"I tried," she said hopelessly. "The only unoccupied rooms in campus are the married student suites, and you have to have a valid marriage certificate signed by the appropriate officials in order to get in there." She laughed mirthlessly. "Maybe one of the expelled KTs will marry me just to get back on campus."

"No," Casey said, her mind going curiously blank. "I'll do it."

Katherine pulled her hand away from her face. "Excuse me?"

"I'll do it," Casey insisted. "I'll drive you to Iowa, we'll get a certificate, and then you can have the room. I'll still live with Ashleigh, but I'll pretend I'm living in your suite. She felt the thrum in her body, like a little chant saying "make it right."

Katherine stood up and paused for a moment, looking hard at Casey. "Okay," she said finally.

"Okay?" Casey repeated.

"Yes, ZBZ. I accept your proposal. But I'll drive. I'm not allowing you to attempt to kill me again. Wait here." And with that, she stalked off towards her room, leaving Casey helplessly gaping at her back.

By the time she returned, Casey had pulled herself together a little more. Doubts were beginning to creep in, little voices that sound like reality checks. Katherine shouldered her purse and dangled her car keys. "Are you ready ZB—Casey?" she asked brusquely.

With the sound of her actual name, all her doubts were silenced. Katherine even gave her a small smile, and then Casey was following her out of the door, into the car and on the road to Iowa.

The next fifteen hours were pretty much a blur. She knew she was in the car for a _long_ time. She knew they crossed three states, and she now knew Katherine knew all the words to that song about fireflies. She also knew she stood in a little office in City Hall, signed where she was supposed to sign, went next door to the justice of peace, presented their documents, and someone pronounced them married.

Definitely she remembered Katherine leaning over, and very focused, she had kissed Casey, with her hands framing both sides of Casey's face. She didn't think she'd forget that one. Katherine kissed like she'd done it before, leading effortlessly. She had very nice breath and soft hands.

"Done!" Katherine announced when she pulled away. "We're all set then, correct?"

The bemused justice nodded and Katherine allowed a small smile before tugging Casey by the hand. "Come, we have to hurry and get back so we don't miss anymore classes." Casey stumbled after her, eyes fixed on the certificate. Casey Cartwright to Katherine Gepburn.

"Your last name is Gepburn?" She said, nearly walking into the car door.

"Yes yes, it rhymes with the actress, I know," Katherine says. She took the certificate from Casey's hand and tucked it in her bag. She ushered Casey into the passenger seat, and then closed the door firmly after her.

Casey slept a little on the ride home. She didn't have one bad dream.

When they finally got back, it was past dinner time, and they had definitely missed their classes. Katherine dropped Casey off at the door without a word.

"Good night," Casey ventured.

"Good night Casey," Katherine said. "I hope this wasn't a ploy to get VPJ back. I'd hate to have to drive back for a quicky divorce."

"No no," Casey said. "I know that's long gone." She waved as the car disappeared down the street, and then ran inside and up the stairs to her room.

Ashleigh was uncapping a bottle of nail polish when Casey came banging in, flopping backwards onto her bed. "You'll never guess what I did today," Casey said dramatically.

"Fell off the face of the earth?" Ashleigh demanded. "I called you like eight times."

"Didn't have service," Casey said. "I fixed everything with Katherine."

"Oh yeah," Ashleigh said, returning to her pedicure. "Did you have to promise to do her laundry, or her homework or something?"

"No," Casey said. "I got her into the married suites so she didn't have to live with that vomit machine."

"How did you do that?" Ashleigh asked, painting a stripe on her big toenail.

"I went with her to Iowa and signed off on a marriage certificate?"

The hand holding the nail polish jerked, and Ashleigh swore as her big toe got covered in purple polish. "You married Katherine? Are you _serious?_

"Not like that," Casey tried to explain. "She needed to get into the suites. I helped her."

"Oh God," Ashleigh said. "You're like Britney and K-Fed married."

"No," Casey said horrified. "More like I'm like Britney and that dancer she married for three days married."

"So you're going to file for divorce? You're going to be a divorcée?"

"I don't know, Ashleigh! I guess when the semester ends or the Gamma Psi's get their house back, I will."

Ashleigh opened her mouth to say something else, but Casey was suddenly not in the mood to talk about it, not with her body still thrumming with the sense of rightness. She covered a yawn and said, "Let's talk tomorrow. It's fine okay? It'll be fine."

Ashleigh looked dubious, but hobbled off to the bathroom to fix her toe. Casey shut off her bedside lamp and snuggled in. It wasn't a big deal. It was helping a friend. Her friend.

That night she dreamed Rebecca Logan was on a tandem bike chasing her. No one else was on the bike, just Rebecca. She was right, it was terrifying. Katherine didn't appear once.

 

She didn't hear from Katherine for a few days. She went about her business, attending house meetings, class, awkward conversations with either or all of her ex-boyfriends, the usual.

One morning later in the week, as she sat at breakfast, splitting a grapefruit with Laura, she heard Rebecca call, "Casey, Katherine's here for you."

She nearly fell out of her chair turning around. Katherine stood there, hugging her books to her chest, looking less like she wanted to kill Casey than most of the last few times she had been here. "Hello, Casey," she said. "Is there somewhere we can we talk?"

Leading Katherine up to her room seemed a bigger deal than it probably should have been. "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't called at all, I've been really busy with house stuff, and school," Casey babbled, twisting her hair and sitting on her bed.

Katherine walked around the room, studying the pictures. "No problem. I need your presence though. My new rooms are quite satisfactory and I've already grown attached to them. However, the RA for the building has invited us to dinner to meet the other couples in our building. I obviously need you to be there."

"Sure," Casey said, too quickly. "I can do that. I'll be there with bells and whistles on. Or not. Probably just a dress. No whistles."

Katherine looked at her with a mixture of bemusement and something else, something that almost seems like fondness. "Moving on," she said. "I need you to sign off saying we received the packet with the rules for the building." She pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen, and held them out to Casey.

"No problem," Casey said, signing them with a flourish. "I trust that you'll keep your troublemaker attitude in check?"

Katherine didn't bother dignify that with a comment, although she did put away her paper and pen, lean over and give Casey a quick kiss on the cheek. "I will see you tomorrow night for dinner," she said quietly. "Have a good day."

She left the room, and Casey, who had whited out the second Katherine's lips touched her skin, shook herself out of it. Ashleigh came in humming the theme song to "Married With Children."

The next night, Casey tried on six dresses, borrowed one from Rebecca, returned it because what was short on Rebecca was obscene on Casey, ended up with the first dress she had tried, and set off towards the suites. Katherine opened the door at the first knock, as if she had been just inside waiting.

"You turned up," Katherine said, sounding relieved. "Come in."

It wasn't a huge set of rooms, but Casey was impressed anyways. Big windows facing the evening sunset, a breakfast bar, an adorable little love seat. "Nice," she said approvingly.

"Yes," Katherine said. "Thank you. I don't know if I said that yet, but if I didn't, I meant to. Thank you for this."

Casey turned to smile at her and was struck by how very pretty Katherine looked. She was wearing a royal blue sheath dress with a silver necklace with a pendant that rested right at her breasts. Casey dragged her eyes up long enough to say, "You look great, Katherine."

"We both look very impressive," Katherine agreed. "Hopefully we will appear charming enough to reassure everyone that the sorority girls won't be turning the suite into animal house." She held out her hand to Casey, and Casey took it, squeezing it as they made their way to the building's common area. A long table had been set up, with tall candles decorating every surface.

"Ugh," Katherine said, shuddering. "Candles."

"The newlyweds are here!" a voice crowed, and suddenly they were surrounded. "I'm Dana," one of the girls said stepping forward. "This is my husband Brian, this is our neighbor Sam, his wife Julie, your neighbor Ana, her husband Tomas, and Damien and Riley who live below us."

"Wow," Casey said. "I'm Casey and this is my…." She fumbled for a second, unable to actually say the word wife. Katherine stood stock-still beside her, but Casey felt her tighten her grasp of Casey's hand. "This is my Katherine," she said finally, and the group cooed.

A woman bustled out of what was probably the kitchen, carrying a bowl of something that smelled delicious. "Just in time!" she told them. "Sit sit," and they did. The woman, who turned out to be Caitlyn, their RA, sat at the head of the table, and they took seats beside her.

"So," she said once everyone was settled. "How did you meet?"

Casey, who had just taken a huge bite, choked a little. Katherine, eternally collected said, "I am president of Pan-Hellenic. Casey and I are both part of the Greek system."

She said it like that was the end, but the group seemed to be waiting for more, so Casey filled in, "I was named my house's delegate, so I started going to meetings, and started working closer with Katherine."

"Was it love at first sight?" Julie, or maybe Ana asked.

Before Casey could help herself, she laughed out loud. "She hated me," she giggled.

"I did not!" Katherine protested.

"Oh you so did," Casey said, still laughing. "You thought I was obnoxious."

"I thought you were impertinent," Katherine defended. "Your ideas did not seem that well thought out. But then" she said, poking at her food. "I realized you simply lacked attention to detail." She looked at Casey. "We made a good team," she said, sounding completely honest, and a little wistful.

"And then what happened?" Caitlyn asked, fascinated. Casey took over. "I confessed some...things. To Katherine. And after that, I obviously couldn't work under her anymore."

"Then you got married so you could play under her," Damian said, chortling.

The group snickered and Casey ducked her head in embarrassment. Thankfully, the topic changed to spring break plans, and she dropped her hand under the table and squeezed Katherine's knee lightly. Katherine covered her hand with her own, and they stayed like that for a bit.

They excused themselves after dessert, shaking hands and thanking their neighbors. "They seemed nice," Casey said after they escaped into the hallway.

"Yes," Katherine said. "It's not the Gamma Psi house, but it'll do for now." They walked together in silence for a bit until they reached the room.

As Katherine unlocked the door, Casey said carefully, "Did you mean that back there? About being a good team?"

"Of course," Katherine said. "I was so mad at you, Casey, not because of the fire. I know it was an accident. But you're better than covering it up. And blackmail. You're so smart, Casey, and you could go so far, but you insist on doing these idiotic--"

Casey kissed her. She kissed her with enough passion that Katherine stumbled through the open door, into their living room. Katherine raised her hands to Casey's shoulders and rested them there as she kissed back.

When they finally broke apart, Katherine tilted her forehead down to rest against Casey's. They breathed quietly for a moment and then Katherine said, "Would the representative from ZBZ like to join the representative from Gamma Psi on an outing tomorrow night?"

Casey giggled. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"Yes," Katherine said. "I am."

Casey laughed.

"What's so funny?" Katherine asked, affronted.

"First we broke up, then we got married, and now we're going to date."

"Yes, ZBZ," Katherine said, "Thank you for the summary. Moving on," and she kicked the door closed.

_Three months later_

"Sign here, Casey," Katherine said imperiously, pointing to the places where she had marked.

"You could pretend this is at all an eventful day, you know," Casey told her.

"Oh my god," Rebecca said, holding a glass of wine and lounging on the loveseat like a Roman empress. "Just freaking sign it already."

"I will not have this rushed!" Casey yelled. "You can all get out if you don't like it." Ashleigh, Rebecca, and Natalie all rolled their eyes in unison. Casey thought it was an impressive feat considering it was only recently that Natalie had agreed to a truce, and gingerly associated with them.

"Casey," Katherine said, bringing her back to the moment. "This isn't a big deal. We're graduated now. It's a new lease. It's like," she said waving her hands, "_getting married_." She leaned down and cupped Casey's chin in her hands, and kissed her once. "I love you," she said. "Now sign the papers, and stop whining."

Casey signed them.


End file.
